Wildest West Coast to Historic Ross
Thursday 8 October
Lulled by the crashing of the waves, we slept well in our cosy Banjo. I popped out to the beach just before 8am, met a cheeky weka, marvelled at the snowy Southern Alps and watched the waves. Wow! š¤©
A tÄrapuka, black billed gull, flew down and landed by the weka - who rushed at it, squawking and all puffed up - very territorial! Wish I had been quick enough to record that encounter.
An hour or so later we walked out along the gorsey dunes behind the beach to the north - the tide was so high, some of the waves were flooding over the sandbanks at the back of the beach and flowing into the tyre tracks of the path we were on! Louis took refuge on a driftwood tree trunk to save getting washed away - I got caught out by one wave and soaked the turn-ups on my jeans.
About a km along from the freedom camp we popped out from behind the gorse to walk along the driftwood covered sand dunes behind the beach - dancing up onto logs occasionally to avoid being swamped! There were so many funky driftwood pieces all along the beach - exciting shapes, textures and natural carvings; I hopped up on one and did my best Mokka impression - "Place!" The wild waters had also shaped and washed up a fair bit of metalwork - probably old sheds that had washed downstream during floods. Some were rather fab like sculptures in the sand. Sadly there was also a bit of litter - worst was an old fridge... how on earth did that end up out here, ifnot maliciously?
Spent an age just watching the waves roll, tumble, crash & boom onto the shore - absolutely hypnotic!
There were two chunky tree stumps which took a pretty heavy pounding as the waves rushed in - amazing that they hung in there!
Looking inland, the snowcapped Southern Alps were looking gorgeous - and then a pair of honking Canada geese flew past looking spendid. We also met a guy out walking his English Bull Terrier, Bruce - such a big bruiser of dog, but very sweet and keen on pats!
Walking home, 10-20m behind the back of the beach, the tyre tracks and pathway kept being flooded by the big waves. I'd not tackled the abandoned refrigerator, but there was other litter along the beach and I'd collected some of the smaller stuff to pop in our bin. Back at Banjo we discovered a weka had been doing some home decor and rearranged our mat at a jaunty angle! We hopped in, packed up, hitched up and left our lovely free spot by the beach over the rather narrow bridge with the unclear weight limit sign (we survived so it must be over 6 tonne!). On googling it turns out 20% of Class 1 Heavy Vehicle means approx 9tonne as a Class 1 Heavy Vehicle max is 44tonne.
We headed inland through farmland then hit SH6 and trekked north to Ross, a historic gold mining town, where we visited the rather tight dump station then parked up at Peteās Pop above the town and had lunch in the sun there. The blossoms by the info centre and dump station were fabulous and humming with bees - I created a new portmanteau for them "Blossom + Ross = Rossom"!
I stopped by to check on the angry alpaca by Pete's POP - it wasn't as furious as last time we stayed here (then it charged and half mounted the fence whenever we approached!!) but it was still not an amicable alpaca.
Our afternoon walk was the Water Race Loop, up through the heart of Rossā gold mining past. Heading out on the Ross Water Race walk we came across the waterwheel, sluicing spout & old water pipe. Louis also checked out the stream which is officially open for gold panning and fossicking - spoiler alert, we didn't spot any glints of gold.
The path wound up into the hillside above the town and you had to stick to it to avoid hidden mine shafts and steep drops. There were several tunnels and mine shafts as well as the water race ditch running beside the path. Water for sluicing was a valuable commodity - especially up high in the hills. Wooden aqueducts carried water across where a race couldnāt be cut into a valley or creek crossing - there was one small wooden set of remains, but the main one across the valley is long gone, but immortalised in an old photo.
High up along the path we came to an old miner's hut which was in relatively good condition, though very basic with just a wooden bed and a fireplace inside.
Last time we came to Ross almost a year ago, it was after a huge storm and large sections of this path has been washed out - we had walked up to the cemetery but the track had been closed from the gate onwards. This time we would see where the rain had caused massive slips, washing out the track which had now been cleared and cut through again. We came out at the old cemetery after an hour or so - it is filled with impressive but sad Victorian headstones and crossed, has stunning views out to the coast and the saddest tombstones is for one fella who died of ādispairā š¢
Put on our glad rags and tottered down the hill (stopping to meet a cute doggo along the way) and went for dinner at the Historic Empire Hotel - extremely good lamb shanks with a mound of creamy mashā¦ yum! Enjoy the collection of Historic Empire Hotel moments - Itās not what youād call āwokeā š¤£
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